I met with Amey this week and discussed a number of issues with them about their management of the Highways Maintenance contract (which covers roads, pavements and everything on them including street lights and street trees). There have been a few glitches in their responses to queries from resident groups in Acocks Green recently and I wanted to make sure this was addressed quickly.

It was a good meeting with the following outcomes / points to note:

• Some of the delays in responding to queries made by councillors on behalf of residents, have been caused by a rather clumsy process where queries had to be logged on the Customer First database and a job number issued before it could be tackled. Its now been agreed that, while issues do need to be logged, they will start work on getting an answer at the same time as this happens, not after. Members of the public or residents groups have the choice of contacting Customer First directly (303 6644 or via birmingham.gov.uk) or a councillor when a they spot a problem in the highway, such as a faulty street light or broken street sign.
• Their small network of highway stewards has been somewhat overwhelmed by invitations to residents groups and neighbourhood forums recently. They have decided they will not attend these on a regular basis. This is a shame, even if the size of the job makes it understandable. What will be key is that they respond quickly to councillors so that there is at least one route whereby everyone can get a speedy response to an urgent query. This they have promised to do. They have also developed a cover system for each part of the City so that when one steward is away another will be available for urgent issues. Our Steward in Acocks Green in Jason Bickley and his cover is Sandra Bishop.
• They have promised that, in the future, disabled parking bays will not simply be re-marked when roads are resurfaced, but that a check will be made that the bay is still needed.

I have a copy of their draft programme of works for the next 5 years. This should be replaced with the final version in a month or two. However if anyone wants to know if and when their road is scheduled to have work done on it in the next 5 years, send me an email and I’ll let you know what the draft plan says.